Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass podcast. It is Friday,
Speaker 1: September twentieth. The Ravens are preparing for Sunday's game coming
Speaker 1: up against the Dallas Cowboys. Still travel to Dallas tomorrow
Speaker 1: to get ready for that game. Today, we had a
Speaker 1: chance to hear from head coach John Harplough.
Speaker 2: Okay, good to see everybody. Appreciate everybody being here. What
Speaker 2: questions you have John?
Speaker 3: There were reports of Justice Hill sign of a contract extension.
Speaker 3: I mean, how happy are you for him and his growth?
Speaker 3: Me started as a special teams player and has really
Speaker 3: become a big part of what you do offensive here.
Speaker 4: He has He's still a very good special teams player,
Speaker 4: I might add.
Speaker 2: But Justice Hill.
Speaker 4: Congratulations to Justice, Congratulations to his family, Congratulations with the Ravens.
Speaker 2: That's Justice has.
Speaker 4: Become a really, really good football player. And you know
Speaker 4: he came in here, fourth round pick Oklahoma State, a
Speaker 4: lot of talent. We were excited about him. Threw himself
Speaker 4: into special teams. Like you said, it's still a very
Speaker 4: good special teams player. We haven't used him there as
Speaker 4: much so far, but he's ready and willing. He practices
Speaker 4: every day at that as well. Uh, just to see
Speaker 4: him get that kind of that kind of a reward,
Speaker 4: you know, for everything he's done. Probably one of the
Speaker 4: greatest shining examples of come to work every day, ready
Speaker 4: to go to work every day, you know, be it
Speaker 4: your best, positive attitude. You guys see him, you know
Speaker 4: how he is upbeat, ready to go. Uh, nothing too
Speaker 4: big for him, nothing too small for him. Just wants
Speaker 4: to be his best and and lift everybody up. To
Speaker 4: see a guy like that get rewarded is to me
Speaker 4: what it's about. You also use as an example to
Speaker 4: maybe a younger player who got hurt in year win or.
Speaker 2: Year two, as a hey, that this doesn't need to
Speaker 2: be the end of your story. There would be.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, I haven't done that yet specifically, probably, but uh,
Speaker 4: he would be a great example.
Speaker 2: And we've had other guys like that.
Speaker 4: But for him to tear the achilles the way he did,
Speaker 4: and boy, I mean maybe he's faster than he was
Speaker 4: at this point, but shows you how Hardy's work. Credit
Speaker 4: to the trainers and the and the guys in the
Speaker 4: weight room for sure. But that's a probably a great point, Hilds.
Speaker 4: I think he'd be that example. What about just the
Speaker 4: fact that I mean, it's a day repay contract a
Speaker 4: team or not. When you talk to other guys that
Speaker 4: come in here, you know a lot of Day three
Speaker 4: picks don't pay around in the NFL very long.
Speaker 1: This is his third.
Speaker 4: Contract, Yeah, be interested to see what the stats are
Speaker 4: on the Day three picks that get three contracts. You know,
Speaker 4: it's it's probably how many players get three contracts. I
Speaker 4: don't care where you get picked, but you know, I
Speaker 4: do believe that when when a when a player especially
Speaker 4: he's got the right mindset, thinks the right way, no
Speaker 4: matter where he's picked, first round pick or undrafted, free
Speaker 4: agent or anything in between.
Speaker 2: That's the plan. You know.
Speaker 4: They want to get three contracts, you know, And and
Speaker 4: here's a guy that's actually done it, so he'd be
Speaker 4: a good guy to go talk to and seek advice from.
Speaker 4: How much should the blocks on Christians add to? You know,
Speaker 4: you're how impressed you guys are with him? How much
Speaker 4: of the blocking that you did on Christians?
Speaker 2: Well, it didn't hurt, It didn't hurt?
Speaker 1: Was it?
Speaker 4: Probably the the thing I think Eric's probe Probably My
Speaker 4: guess is Eric and Nick have been working on that
Speaker 4: for quite a while. But uh, yeah, I just I
Speaker 4: think it's an example of he'll do anything he's asked.
Speaker 3: Johnny Sutton, you spend time at the offensive line this morning.
Speaker 3: You've done that before. But obviously that's as you've said,
Speaker 3: that's a point of emphasis. What prompted that, I guess
Speaker 3: and uh.
Speaker 2: Oh for me being down there? Yeah, yes, and.
Speaker 3: You know where you still looking at maybe rotations or
Speaker 3: any changes there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, to your real question, I answered all on to
Speaker 4: your fake question. First, heyre was clever. I just felt
Speaker 4: like in that walk through they needed a little speed, quickness,
Speaker 4: athleticism out there on the edge, and I felt like
Speaker 4: it mud be the guy to provide that. Uh had
Speaker 4: a nice swipe hop out move if you noticed. But
Speaker 4: uh no, we we're definitely a work in progress. I mean,
Speaker 4: there's no question about that. We we we uh, we're
Speaker 4: heading to where we're gonna be. I'm very confident that
Speaker 4: we're gonna be the kind of offensive line that we
Speaker 4: need to be. We've been down this road before in
Speaker 4: the offensive line, We've down this road in other positions.
Speaker 2: And we got to work at it.
Speaker 4: We've got to build that because you can't be a
Speaker 4: great offense without being without having a great offensive line.
Speaker 2: It's just I've never believed it was possible.
Speaker 4: If you go back to two thousand and eight, we
Speaker 4: talked about you starting the trenches, starting the offensive line
Speaker 4: of defensive line, and that's that's that's been true since
Speaker 4: Fielding Yost was coaching in Michigan. It's going to be
Speaker 4: true hundred years from now. So that's that's important for us,
Speaker 4: and and we are working progress. I think it's still competition,
Speaker 4: it's still up.
Speaker 2: In the air.
Speaker 4: It's for for certain spots, and uh, that's part of it,
Speaker 4: you know. So we're gonna go into this game and
Speaker 4: play the game, and you know, I'm really excited because
Speaker 4: I think we're gonna play great. I think our offensive
Speaker 4: line is gonna play great. You have to believe that
Speaker 4: and feel that way. And I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 4: And you probably will see some different guys, you know,
Speaker 4: in spots. So that's just part of it.
Speaker 3: What kind of versatility is a guy like Pat Terry?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's the thing about Pat.
Speaker 4: You know, Pat can play all five spots and he has,
Speaker 4: so that's that's a valuable thing. That's prob part of
Speaker 4: why it is at right tackle, you know, first two game,
Speaker 4: so that's a valuable thing.
Speaker 2: Again and quick end. We all know we've seen you practice,
Speaker 2: we know how part of you guys practice.
Speaker 3: But some of the guys have mentioned this week that
Speaker 3: there's been maybe a little different energy for this week's back.
Speaker 2: Have you since anything different in that regard?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, I think we always practice at a
Speaker 4: high level with a lot of energy, but there are
Speaker 4: levels to that. And this week the guys were were
Speaker 4: in We're in it. They were on it. They were
Speaker 4: on it, and uh, you know, I think they set
Speaker 4: a standard for this season for sure, and I want
Speaker 4: to keep building on that standard because to me, it's
Speaker 4: a practice sport and it's a race to get better
Speaker 4: and if you're willing to go out and practice hard
Speaker 4: and well, then then you've got a chance to win that.
Speaker 2: Race to get better. So that was good to see. Now,
Speaker 2: now the next part of that is you take that.
Speaker 4: Practice into the game. You know, that's the next part
Speaker 4: of it, and that's what they'll be they'll be working
Speaker 4: to do. But the best way to play well in
Speaker 4: the games to play well in practice.
Speaker 3: I'm saying made Wiggins back at practice this week, how
Speaker 3: do you feel like he's doing it? Is do you
Speaker 3: feel like he's trended towards playing Sunday.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's a great question.
Speaker 4: I thought, as you saw, he practiced full speed, he
Speaker 4: was in everything, had the red jersey on, but he
Speaker 4: was full go in terms of moving around and everything, and.
Speaker 2: I thought he looked great. You know.
Speaker 4: So it's up to the doctors in the protocol, et cetera,
Speaker 4: and we'll see how that shakes out.
Speaker 1: All right, Sorry to do that.
Speaker 3: I'll take that when it's time for mel Kuiper said
Speaker 3: that too high, sayer, you should be out. What's your
Speaker 3: opinion on that?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, if if you remember in the Chiefs game,
Speaker 4: it was a too high safety they got beat for
Speaker 4: the touchdown.
Speaker 2: So you know, so I'm fine with bad at this point.
Speaker 2: Get it out, get it out.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely. It's not really too
Speaker 4: high so much as it's split safety quarters too high.
Speaker 4: The variations that are umbrella type zone coverages that keep
Speaker 4: the ball in front force teams to go the long way.
Speaker 4: So no, I don't see he's going to get banned
Speaker 4: anytime soon. You know. It forces teams to be disciplined
Speaker 4: and to execute and to not make mistakes. On offense,
Speaker 4: you know, and go to the long, hard route, and
Speaker 4: that's what you got to get good at doing on offense.
Speaker 2: That's something we need to get go to doing. About
Speaker 2: wearing persons number for your past rush.
Speaker 4: Ups, right, yeah, yeah, I don't want to motivate a
Speaker 4: guy like that.
Speaker 2: No, I probably wouldn't do that. No, good, good question. Thanks.
Speaker 1: All right, you're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast.
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Speaker 1: to the Lounge podcast feed for a full breakdown of
Speaker 1: what to expect in this game it was going to
Speaker 1: take for the Ravens to come away with the victory.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back with
Speaker 1: you on Sunday following that game.